


Post-Apocalyptic Jogging

by morbid



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Eventual Sam/5, Explicit Language, F/M, Gen, Random fic, Season 1, Self Insert, WIP, does that sound dirty?, so far - Freeform, spoilers up to Season 1 Mission 1, that might change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morbid/pseuds/morbid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Zombies, Run! story told from Runner Five's POV and written as I progress through the missions. Will probably eventually veer off from canon and/or play jump rope with the storyline, we'll see what happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Post-Apocalyptic Jogging

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies for the worst summary in the history of the internet - I don't know enough about the story and where it's going to summarize it! But yeah, hope you give it a chance anyway. Here's Mission 1.

It was her training that saved her, she was sure. One minute the helicopter pilot had been nosing around, not even bothering to be subtle whilst pumping her for information - the next, a rocket launcher was whipping past the window, mere inches from a collision. Kendra had flinched away instinctively, tensing as if ready to dodge. It was mere seconds, however, before her training kicked in - ignoring the yammering pilot devolving to hysterics, Kendra had brought her knees up to her chest, tucking her head between her legs and forcing her muscles to unclench. 

She’d been ready for the second impact when it came only moments later, slamming into the aircraft from the back and sending it into a tailspin. The adrenaline surged as Kendra twisted out of her safety restraints, automatically running through the scenario in her mind. 

Kendra didn’t need to look to know the pilot was a lost cause - the woman’s silence was evidence enough. Chances were she wasn’t dead, just knocked unconscious; but Kendra didn’t know this woman, and the last thing she needed was to be dragging dead weight - this wasn’t a Disney movie, and she wasn’t planning on dying for some stranger.

The metal frame of the helicopter was shuddering as the wind whipped past, propeller spinning wildly out of control as the machine careened downwards. Kendra bit her lip in indecision, glancing back and forth between the cargo hold behind her and the slumped body of the pilot in front of her. Supplies would give her a better chance at lasting long enough for a Retrieval team to be sent for her - but with communications and a weapon, perhaps she’d be able to make it to the Township walls?

In the end, it was no decision - she’d take a radio and handgun over a backpack of gauze bandages and rubbing alcohol any day.

Mind made up, Kendra lunged to the front of the helicopter cockpit, sparing the unmoving pilot’s body no dignity as she patted the woman down for a weapon. There - a concealed holster at her ankle. Kendra yanked the whole thing off without a second thought, straightening up and snagging the pilot’s headset. The woman’s head was lolled back, a steady trickle of blood dripping from a gash on her forehead down over a cheek and collecting in the divot of her slightly-open mouth. 

Scrambling back over the body and to the emergency exit, Kendra indulged in a half-hearted moment of pity - for all that she was annoying, the woman certainly didn’t deserve to go down like this. Wrenching her attention away, Kendra opened twisted the emergency exit handle, clinging tight to the metal supports to prevent the wind from tearing her straight out of the aircraft. From there, it was only a matter of timing - with a few seconds to spare, Kendra managed to grab the closest backpack and tucked it close to her chest before making the jump. She didn’t spare a glance for the helicopter’s path, but as she landed among the trees, grabbing as many branches as she could on the way down, Kendra could hear the impact about a hundred meters southwest of her position. 

And then she was on the ground, landing on her feet only to immediately collapse to her knees, crying out in pain from the impact. So much for tucking and rolling - she supposed for all the times she’d practiced in the gym at the base, Kendra had never been quite as battered and out of it as she was now.

The X across her body where the safety harness had dug into her skin upon impact already felt bloated and puffy, and Kendra was sure there would be one hell of a bruise there in the morning - if she lived until then, that was.

Her left shoulder was definitely out of sorts -  _probably sprained_ \- her mind supplied helpfully, but it would have to wait. The abused muscles twinged painfully as Kendra raised the salvaged headset to her face, examining it for damage before cautiously slipping it on.

“Hey. Hey, uh...this is Abel Township calling, are you there?” Came a voice from the little speakers. Kendra grinned, heart leaping.

“Roger that, Abel Township, this is Jolly Alpha Five Niner, over,” she said, the military communication protocol coming to her easily.

“Agh, they’re not answering...their comms could be fried,” he murmured, trailing off, and Kendra groaned, the dead weight in her chest slipping back to its familiar cavity of despair.

“Shot. Great. Fucking perfect,” she cursed, rolling her eyes and bending down to fasten the stolen ankle holster to her leg. It was a bit too large to be a comfortable fit, even adjusted to its smallest, and it flopped somewhat awkwardly when she shook her foot around in an awkward semblance of the hokey pokey. Kendra just shrugged - unwieldy was better than nothing, in any case. The handgun she’d pilfered wasn’t much - a compact Glock 27. She was familiar with the model, and knew that best-case scenario was she had 8 bullets. The magazine held 9, but everyone knew you saved the last bullet for yourself; for when every other option was exhausted.

Kendra checked the magazine grimly, confirming the number of rounds, and returned it to its holster - she’d feel more comfortable with it in her hands, of course, but this wasn’t an action movie, and running around in the woods with a loaded firearm was just asking for trouble.

“Listen. If you’re alive, if there’s anyone alive, this is Sam Yao from Abel Township. I’m just a...well, I’m just a radio operator, man, I’m...I’m not supposed to handle this stuff!” Kendra rolled her eyes, feeling decidedly un-reassured by the guy’s lack of confidence. Trust this nowhere hicksville to have a high school dropout manning the communications lines. “You’ve come down in a nest of hostiles. They’ve heard the noise. They’re coming. There are thirty...ugh, no, forty, no...oh, crap. Uh...your only safe path is towards the tower. You should be able to see it from where you are - if there’s anyone alive there, just  _run._ Run!”

Kendra’s head shot up, barely registering the man’s words over the distinct sound of moaning in the distance. She hoisted the backpack on her shoulders, ignoring the protests of her dislocated joint, and took off at a steady jog towards the nearest clearing in the trees, trying to calm the mad beating of her heart. She thought she could make out the grey outline of a tower in the distance to the east, but it was hard to be sure through the treetops. Really, all she could focus on was getting as far away from the crash site as possible - that was where the zombies would be drawn to, after all.

As many questions as she had whirling endlessly in her brain, Kendra tuned them all out, shoving them to a dusty corner of her mind to be reviewed later. Instead, she turned her attention only to the physical, slipping into the relaxing rhythm of feet pounding against the soft earth. The man on the headset had fallen silent, which was for the better, really - this way she could stay more in tune with her surroundings. Kendra could see the tower he’d mentioned clearly when she reached a break in the trees, and she adjusted her direction accordingly, sparing the occasional glance over her shoulder to assure herself there were no zombies on her trail. 

Everything started fading into a familiar blur, and Kendra couldn’t help but let a small, genuine smile creep onto her face - it had been a long time since she’d been out of the compound, let alone out in nature like this. It was almost like the days...well, the days Before, when she’d go for morning jogs with her dog down by the river; before everything went to shit.

The memories brought Kendra comfort, and she let the physical world take over - time was measured not in seconds, but in heartbeats, and footsteps and drops of sweat and clouds of dirt beneath her runners.

The next time Kendra glanced up from the ground beneath her, she was discomfited to see that the tree line ended abruptly ahead of her. The tower that was her destination seemed marginally closer, of course, but she wasn’t as comfortable out in the open - which, considering the fact that she’d been shot out of the air only minutes earlier, seemed to be a valid concern.

Shrugging, she merely picked up the pace a little, glancing around suspiciously through the thinning trees.

“Wow! There’s...there’s someone alive down there! Running! Hey, can you hear me?” Kendra grimaced - that just confirmed her suspicions. For anyone with eyes on the area and a spare missile, she was a sitting duck.

“I can hear you,” Kendra panted slightly between breaths, even though she knew her headset’s mouthpiece wasn’t transmitting properly. Echoing her thoughts perfectly, the man scoffed.

“No answer. Still, just...look at her go! Heading for the tower. Just like I said,” he said, sounding ecstatic. Kendra couldn’t help the quirk of her mouth at the guy’s words. What could she say? A little cheer really was infectious. 

“Okay! Running person! If you can hear me...well, you’re doing great. The main group’s behind you, and you’re going to be out of this forest soon, but there’s a...yeah, well, uh.” He hesitated, sounding apologetic, and Kendra suddenly had an image in her mind’s eye of a scruffy guy biting his lip apologetically. “I can’t think of a phrase that’s not ‘small army of zombies’. Sorry. Don’t do so well under massive pressure,” he finished sheepishly, and Kendra laughed.

“How small is a small army? Ten?” she said in between breaths. She knew it was useless, of course, but...well, being able to hold a conversation with someone, albeit a one-sided one, still somehow held an element of comfort for her.

“There’s a...well, one of those, directly to the east of the trees,” he said, ignoring her unheard question. Kendra rolled her eyes, now irritated with the guy - the least he could do was try and find someone competent to put on the line, someone that could give her real information. “So. If you head more towards the old saw mill, you should be able to see its massive red signs from where you are...”

Kendra raised her uninjured arm to wipe a line of sweat from her brow, glancing around and spotting the aforementioned signs easily enough. Inwardly shrugging, she adjusted her course, angling several degrees west and presumably away from the ‘small army of zombies’. 

“Oh man, look at that! She’s changing direction, she’s...you can hear me!” He laughed, sounding absolutely delighted. “Okay, okay, we can keep you safe. It’s cool, it’s cool, we can bring you in,” he continued quickly, seemingly trying to reassure himself just as much as he was her. Kendra narrowed her eyes as she heard a voice in the background, too muffled to understand.

“No! We can’t ask her that. She could be injured!” he protested, sounding scandalized.

“Well all the more reason to ask them then!” insisted a new voice, female, with a stern no-nonsense tone. “This is Dr. Myers, only medic here at Abel Township,” the woman said, now speaking directly into the mic, and Kendra grinned, picturing the stern woman pushing the younger kid right out of the chair and commandeering the equipment. “Lord knows I’m sorry to ask you this, but your route will take you almost past the old hospital. We know there are medical kits still there from the first wave of infection. If you could pick up even one or two, that would help us-”

“It’s too dangerous, you know what happened to Runner 5!” The younger man insisted.

“The zombs have all followed the noise of the crash!” Dr. Myers argued, and Kendra scowled. Of course, how convenient for her to have arrived on their doorstep in the wake of a flaming crash. Not as if she had any more pressing concerns than to swing by an abandoned building and pick up some band-aids for these people, right?

“But what about whoever fired that rocket launcher?” came the man’s protest, and Kendra bit her lip - that was a can of worms she didn’t particularly want to open at the moment.

“If someone wants to kill that runner, taking an unusual route will make it even harder, not easier,” Dr. Myers said, before turning her attention back to ‘the runner’. “I don’t want to be hard-headed, but everyone in this Township earns their keep. You should be able to see the Robinson Hospital now - one of the buildings, Griffin Tower, it’s the tallest in the abandoned city. And if you can’t find anything...we might not be able to let you in when you get here.”

Kendra clenched her loose hands into fists - she hadn’t been expecting that speech, not when she hadn’t even made it to the damn base yet. Not that she should have expected any different, Kendra supposed. She knew better than anyone how the world worked now; if you didn’t have anything to offer, you were nothing. She could hear plain as day what the woman was really saying: as it stood now, Kendra wouldn’t even be worth a bullet to the skull if she made it to the walls.

The message cut off, and Kendra resisted the urge to snarl, furious. She didn’t respond well to threats, and she wanted nothing more than to show up empty-handed and show the doctor just where she could stick her bogus, passive aggressive sympathy. But she couldn’t. Kendra was utterly and completely at the Township’s mercy, or lack thereof, and they both knew it. Kendra gritted her teeth - if anything made her want to kick something’s head in, it was assholes taking power trips.

With no other options, Kendra adjusted her course yet again, quickly coming upon the aforementioned hospital. Kendra made a face as she reached the main entrance, slowing and glancing around warily. If running out in the open was nerve-wracking, being shut in by all these abandoned buildings, any number of which could be housing hungry hordes of undead, was downright petrifying. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the first guy’s voice came back on in the headset.

“Okay, okay...man, that’s great, you’re making good time! No broken legs I guess,” he attempted feebly, joke falling flat. Kendra rolled her eyes. “Hey. Uh...listen. I’m gonna call you Runner 5. Um, just cause...well, I don’t know your name, and we just lost a runner. In that same hospital you’re running through now.”

Kendra managed to resist the impulse to throw her hands in the air, but it was a near thing. What the hell was this guy’s problem? Was he trying to turn her likely demise into some sort of messed up, grisly re-enactment, or was he just this clueless?

Oblivious to Kendra’s discomfort, the guy just kept talking, like he’d forgotten he was even speaking to a real person.

“She was...so fast. Really funny. And clever. Me and her, we sort of...” Kendra wrinkled her nose - she  _definitely_ didn’t want to be hearing any of this. “She was amazing.” 

Tempted as she was to just yank the headset off as she started creeping through the deserted hospital, Kendra settled for tuning the guy out, fingers itching for the cool reassurance of a shotgun as she started making her way through the dark, empty hallways.

“But, hey. You could be our new Runner 5!” the guy babbled in the background, completely oblivious to the entirely new level of weird he was currently crossing. “If you make it back alive.”

Kendra let the guy’s voice fade into background noise as she continued her journey through the hospital’s wards, following the bright yellow biohazard signs plastered across the walls to the center for viral infection. Shrugging the backpack off her shoulders, Kendra packed four pre-made med kits into the bag - that was twice as many as the bitch had asked for, and it was all the backpack could fit, so it sure as hell had better be enough.

True to form, the kid in her ear was still talking rather aimlessly, and Kendra smiled as he made a comment about slow shambling - she definitely preferred this dude to the doctor, if nothing else. As she crossed through the abandoned hospital’s courtyard, the guy evidently managed to pick her up on camera again and warned her about a swarm of zombs in the parking lot to avoid, a warning she heeded gratefully. As she made her way down to the ground floor, he said something else that caught her interest - a mystery file the doctor was interested in? Probably meant it had something to do with the infection. Now that was very good news - knowledge was power, after all. And if nothing else, it would have the woman indebted to her, which was never a bad thing, right?

“If you find anything official-looking lying around, just...bring it home,” the radio guy finished, and Kendra wondered at the word home. She really did like this kid, even if she hadn’t caught his name. He seemed to care, at the very least - that much was clear from the way he argued her case with the doctor. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but Kendra hoped he was at least a friend she’d be able to rely on, provided she made it back to the Township.

Kendra hadn’t been expecting to find anything, she really hadn’t. When the silvery flash of a slim metal briefcase caught her attention, she’d nearly crept right on by, but the logo stamped across it gave her pause. CDC, didn’t that stand for Centres for Disease Control? She carefully made her way over to where the unassuming little box was lying, skirting around bits of broken glass littering the hallway. It stubbornly refused to open when she tried the clasp, but Kendra could hear its contents rattling lightly when she shook it. There was no way it was fitting in the backpack, not even if she took out a few of the med kits. Nothing else for it, she made a face and crossed her arms, clutching the case tight to her chest as she resolutely continued, and finally sighing in relief when she made it to the exit.

Only seconds after she was out of the shadow of the building, her headset buzzed back to life, and Kendra grinned.

“Hey! There you are! I’ve got you on camera now. Great to see you. Even though you’re kinda blurry. What’s that you’re carrying? Look at this, doc. Runner 5 picked up something in the hospital!” 

Kendra smiled ruefully as she picked up the pace again, relieved to be nearly out of the city. She really was going to make it after all. 

“Is that the Centres for Disease Control file?” the doctor’s voice asked. 

“What’s that?”

“Runner 5, I don’t say this lightly. That box could be worth your life to protect. Don’t drop it.” Kendra scowled - this woman really wasn’t any good as far as second impressions went.

“What is it?” her radio friend asked, intrigued.

“It might be nothing, it might be everything.”

Kendra gritted her teeth - if nothing else, the woman had the whole infuriatingly vague and condescending act down to perfection. The kid surprised a laugh out of her when he said almost the exact same thing, albeit somewhat more politely - she knew there was a reason she liked him. That was, until the doctor interrupted again.

“What’s that shadow over there?” 

“Oh, oh NO! This was what...when we sent her out, this was what happened! They’re following you, Runner 5! The swarm from the car park, they’re following you! Now...run!”

Fuck. As if on cue, Kendra could suddenly hear them - the moans and grumbles of undead, suddenly terrifyingly close on her tail. Panicking, Kendra surged forward, comfortable jogging pace forgotten in her terror. Not now. Not when she was so goddamn close!

The pavement beneath her feet gave way for well-packed earth, and she was out of the city, back into the plains. Before her she could see the walls of the Township, her salvation - still looking to be almost a full kilometre away. She was so screwed.

Everything faded into the background as she ran, thoughts falling to the wayside in favour of keeping the blood pumping through her muscles. Her lungs were starting to burn, and she was gasping for air and still couldn’t catch her breath. She didn’t need the guy’s warning when he came back on to inform her the zombs were gaining on her - she could hear them well enough, outmatching her pace, closing the distance between them.

“Runner 5, you’re not far from the gates now. If you can keep going, we’ll send some people with guns out to meet you. Only one zombie is close to reaching you, just put on a burst of speed, now!” 

Kendra was too out of it to be pissed at the lady for being bossy - what’d she think, up until this point Kendra had been going on a leisurely stroll through a freaking park? - she just lowered her head, willing her burning legs to pump faster, even though they felt ready to fall off. She could hear the zombie behind her, the one they’d mentioned - too close, way too close. How the hell was the thing running?! What happened to slow shambling? 

The gurgles and moans were coming from directly behind her, less than ten metres away. Kendra’s head was fuzzy, the world tilting like a carnival ride beneath her feet. The CDC file she held was clutched to her chest tightly enough to hurt when they dug into her arms. It was awkward to carry, and she really was close to dropping it, hurling it behind her to distract the zombie and surging forward with her arms pumping momentum.

As little respect as she had for the doctor’s orders, though, she knew she needed to guard the file, to ensure her own safety if nothing else.

Through the thunder of her heart pounding in her ears, Kendra could hear the boy on the radio speaking again, headset still resting on her ears as sweat dripped into her eyes.

“Oh, god...it’s her. I can see her. It’s Alice. It’s the old Runner 5. She’s the one chasing you. She’s...she’s still wearing her headset.”

It was the kid’s voice, so soft and broken, that almost killed her - almost stopped her in her tracks. The pain, so familiar, was resurfacing, and the hopelessness, the loss...it was all too fresh all of a sudden. Kendra was ready to give up, she really was - just collapse to the ground and surrender to the oblivion. It would be easy, it really would be...

“Runner 5. It’s Runner 7 here, head of Runners,” came a new voice, tight and urgent enough to snap Kendra out of it, if only for a moment. “The doctor’s told me you’ve found something useful in the hospital. We’re sending out a couple of people to bring you in. Just keep running! As fast as you can. Don’t look back, she’s right behind you. Just run!” the man said, and Kendra did it; she ran.

The blood was pumping behind her eyes and the sweat was salty in her mouth and her legs felt more like packaged gelatin products than appendages, but she ran with all the desperation of someone doomed to the gallows. She didn’t even look up, had no idea how close or far away she was from the gates at this point - her gaze was focused downward, fixed on the ground being steadily eaten up by her flying feet. 

As painfully aware as she was of the death literally snapping at her heels, Kendra almost didn’t notice the men with guns sprinting out to meet her; hardly heard the rapid firing of their semi-automatics as they shot and killed the Runner behind her. Everything was a haze - sirens going off, the mechanical  _whir_ of the gate being raised, the clamour of voices echoing all around her. None of it was  _there,_ not really. The only thing keeping her conscious, in fact, was the determination to make it into the township on her own two feet. 

She managed it, but just barely. There was a crowd of people clustered around her, and she heard them talking, but none of it really registered. There was a familiar voice, rambling somewhat awkwardly, and Kendra couldn’t help the semi-delirious grin that broke out across her face. Then there were people crowding her, and the grin faded, because she wasn’t safe, she was still in danger, and she still hadn’t caught her breath yet, and why was everything so blurry?

The last thing she knew was a voice, right beside her ear, telling the people to back off, and then she was falling into a pair of arms, the scent of baby powder overwhelming and comforting and safe and  _home._


End file.
